Time Capsule, Apple's brand name for an Airport Extreme Base Station with an integrated hard drive and power adapter, is now shipping. Here's a look at what's in the box, and how the new Apple TV-sized wireless backup unit stacks up against the existing AirPort Extreme.

Inside the Box

While AirPort wireless devices have long been shipping in white boxes, Time Capsule ships in a black box with a purple galaxy graphic (below) reminiscent of Leopard's space themed desktop background. The association is a clear nod toward the new wireless base station's support for Leopard's Time Machine feature.

The packaging borrows from the iPod's, with a paper cover that slides off to reveal a plain black box (below) with the words "Designed by Apple in California."

The paper and styrofoam box opens like a book to reveal the shrink wrapped base station unit (below).

Underneath the device is a white envelope with regulatory information, a setup guide booklet, install software, and an AC power cable (below).

The Bigger Box (As Seen On Apple TV)

There's no power brick because Time Capsule includes the AC transformer in the unit itself, just like the Apple TV. The existing AirPort Extreme uses an external power adapter (below), which helps makes it slightly smaller at the expense of having a longer tail and another box to hide. Time Capsule also manages to find room inside itself for a full sized 3.5" hard disk drive with either a full or half terabyte capacity.

Time Capsule has the same 7.7" square outline as Apple TV, making it noticeably larger than the existing 6.5" AirPort Extreme when stacked (below), as well as being a bit heavier.

It has all the same ports as the existing Extreme, although Time Capsule has a regular AC power plug instead of a round DC adapter for the AirPort Extreme's power brick. USB is used for connecting additional hard drives or shared printers; there are three Gigabit Ethernet LAN network jacks (just like the second revision of the Extreme; the original unit only supplied 10/100 Fast Ethernet ports) a WAN network jack, a reset button, and a security hole for a locking cable.

All three units share the same rubberized bottom, which is glued to the base in a way that makes opening up the unit awkward but not entirely difficult. There aren't any intended user serviceable parts inside. Users who outgrow the supplied 500GB or 1TB drive are expected to add an external disk via USB rather than peeling the drive open to swap in a larger model.

The only other cosmetic difference is that Time Capsule has a shiny, mirror finished Apple logo on top rather than the Extreme's plain embossed logo outline or Apple TV's printed logo on a glossy inlaid plastic panel (below).

Time Capsule is just slightly taller than the Extreme and shares the same slotted top design (below top), while it's a full lip taller than Apple TV (below bottom).

Time Capsule Software

The installer CD includes a PDF version of the printed user guide, a brief read me, a "need to know" PDF guide about backups (also included in print as a short leaflet), and an HTML page linking to various resources on finding more information, including the extended references such as Designing AirPort Networks, at Apple - Support - Manuals.

The read me document lists system requirements:

Time Machine backup requires Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.2 or later
AirPort Utility requires Mac OS X v10.4.x or later for configuration of Time Capsule
Wireless network access requires a Macintosh computer with AirPort or AirPort Extreme card
WPA2 support requires a Macintosh computer with an AirPort Extreme card

The short Need to Know PDF points out some basic tips:

The first backup will take a long time, perhaps even lasting overnight
You can set Time Machine to exclude items in Options to save space on the Time Capsule drive
Users should set up the device as the primary base station because its 802.11N is faster than than the Express or earlier AirPort units
Portables being backed up will complete fastest if they have a good signal in the same room as the Time Capsule and are plugged into power
If a Mac is shut down or interrupted during Time Machine backup, it will just start up from where it left off next time

Like the earlier AirPort Extreme, the Time Capsule software includes "AirPort Extreme" 802.11N enabler software for any Macs that shipped with 802.11N hardware but did not include software drivers for it, as well as the AirPort Utility software.

Setting up the unit is as easy as plugging it in, starting AirPort Utility, selecting the unit, and running through the setup assistant (below).

If you select the option to replace an existing base station (below top), the next option presented is to pick from one of the existing configuration settings saved by AirPort Utility, making for a painless upgrade (below bottom). Also available in the base station upgrade candidate list are third party devices saved by the local AirPort client software as previously used WiFi networks.

Another option is to join and extend the range of an existing wireless network. Pick a wireless network, and the software supplies your login if it has previously been joined and the password saved to the Keychain (below).

These slickly automated upgrade and expand options highlight the advantages of using standalone client software to configure the AirPort units rather than a simple embedded web page as most wireless base stations do. Alternatively, none of the AirPort base stations, including Time Capsule, can be set up from a basic web browser; they require installing the AirPort Utility software, which works on both the Mac and Windows PCs.

The Time Capsule Disk

The included drive is formatted and ready for use. The volume name can be changed from the Disks section by selecting the Time Capsule volume (below top). To erase and reformat the drive, select the Time Capsule Disk and click Erase... (below bottom). Either page can be used to boot off all connected users.

The file sharing tab (below) allows you to limit guess access to read only or block guests entirely; setting a Workgroup name is used to serve the drive to Windows clients; and "secure shared disks" offers three options for shared disk security:

with a Time Capsule password uses the same password to access the shared disk as to join the wireless network
with a disk password uses a separate password for the network and disk access
with user accounts sets up the ability to add multiple users on a third tab, each with their own password and an option to limit them to read only access or to block their access without affecting the other users.

No Love for Extreme Users?

Other options for sharing USB printers, logging, SNMP, IPv6, and Bonjour services are identical to the existing AirPort Extreme. Apple continues to sell the Extreme alongside the new Time Capsule models, but hasn't yet issued an update allowing Time Machine to backup to USB disks attached to the Extreme. This is disappointing because a lot of users expect Time Machine backups to work with their existing Extreme shared disks, and Apple hasn't released any clear indication on whether this will be released or not.

It would really seem petty if Apple expected its Extreme customers to all upgrade to Time Capsule, particularly since the company prominently advertised Time Machine as a feature that was planned to work with shared disks on the Extreme in pre-release Leopard information. While those features were listed as "subject to change," there appears to be no technical reason for not supporting the Extreme with Time Machine. Time Capsule also supports externally connected USB disks for use with Time Machine.

We will be testing the drive included with Time Capsule against USB drives attached to an AirPort Extreme in a more in depth look at Time Capsule, but the limitations of wireless networking will likely show no difference in performance throughput between the two. Readers who would like to make special request of the reviewer ahead of the formal review can email Prince with those requests.

Time Capsule is offered in two versions alongside the existing AirPort Express and Extreme:

I don't have much call for a back-up drive, but do like the idea of a large, wireless hard-drive for my iTunes library and then at a later stage when I get round to buying Apple TV integrating it with that.

However reading a review on engadget has put me off: "sure, you can put your iTunes library on it but it's not a media server".

Are they right, am I looking at the wrong tool for the job with Time Capsule?

The only reason I bought an AirPort Extreme was because of the (what was suppose to be) up and coming wireless Time Machine feature. But looks like the jokes on me because instead of releasing it as an update later apple decided to screw us and try to get us all to pay $300-$400 to get a new device. Well forget that Apple. I'm not letting you rob hundreds of dollars from me when you are the ones who f***ed up to start with. If you want me to pay for a software upgrade for my Extreme then I'll do that but make me shell out for another router just so you can get your kicks.

Well I have a Airport Extreme Base Station. I was sold when I seen that it can do 802.11a/b/g and N. Then you can have 802.11a a & n on a 5GHz frequency. That means I can put it on that frequency not worry about interference from microwave and stay online with XBOX 360. I buy 1 this month but later with get a 2nd 1TB Time Capsule for Mac Pro and MacBook Pro. It really boils down how you chose to use the product. I think it's good to me. Somethings are not for everybody. Since I'm about to publish music and do photography shoots. I need backup, ASAP!

• Apple marketing states that it's "server grade", not enterprise grade". Server grade has no set meaning.
• Apple uses it in their Xserve Servers and as well as others.
• The MTBF for the 1TB HDD is rated at 1M hours and the 500GB is rated at 1.2M hours.
• The various testing on this drive show that it's very good.
• All the belly aching is from assuming a marketing term that is technically was referring to an industry standard term.

With the AEBS being the most popular 802.11n router and the price for the model with the integrated HDD I don't see how this will not be a success. My only wish is that Apple was able to allow the integrated HDD and an attached HDD via USB work as RAID 1+0 as I much prefer to keep my excessive files on networked storage.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

I don't have much call for a back-up drive, but do like the idea of a large, wireless hard-drive for my iTunes library and then at a later stage when I get round to buying Apple TV integrating it with that.

However reading a review on engadget has put me off: "sure, you can put your iTunes library on it but it's not a media server".

Are they right, am I looking at the wrong tool for the job with Time Capsule?

Thanks,
JH

If you are talking about iTunes then it is your media portal. Just put teh library anywhere you want on your network and then hold down the Option key whne opening it to access the prompt for "Choose Your Library". The only problem is yo'll have to do manual backups if you want the iTunes Library saved on a 2nd drive.

MS Home Server is actually very nice for a MS Product.... once you get past the unintuitive setup.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

If you are talking about iTunes then it is your media portal. Just put teh library anywhere you want on your network and then hold down the Option key whne opening it to access the prompt for "Choose Your Library". The only problem is yo'll have to do manual backups if you want the iTunes Library saved on a 2nd drive.

You will still have problems with this method if you are trying to use multiple machines on one library.

Receive mine yesterday 1 GB, I plan to back up 4 macs with this and that's why I purchased the bigger one. I did have a little trouble setting Time Machine Up. With my past 2 Airport Extremes I was able to simply use Airport Utility from my laptop and after the base station setup I then programed my 2 Airport Express to extend my network. The Time Machine would take me all the way thru setup and tell me "congratulations your Time Machine has been reconfigured " or whatever, you can stop Airport utility or wait until Time Capsule restarts. ( something like that ) Problem was would never restart afterward. This was solved by using an ethernet cable from Mac to Time Machine, worked first time and also the 2 Expresses.

Question: To use as back up on the other 3 Macs do I have to run the disk received with Time Capsule on those machines?

What's the advantage of doing a TM backup to a TC opposed to a backup connected directly to your machine? Wouldn't a direct connection (via FW or internal) be faster anyway compared to wireless? And why in the world would someone want to do multiple backups from multiple machines to a single drive (TC)? When that one drive craps out, all machines have lost there backup rather than just one. Enlighten me please.

Personally, I'm not sold on this product. As for backups, as cheap as HDD's are today there's no reason why anyone couldn't afford a dependable drive and enclosure for each machine they own. As far as wirelessly sharing an iTunes library, hell I've been doing that since my old APE (flying saucer style) was released (along with a $75 G4 tower) and even those files are backed up elsewhere. I also have the ability of quickly throwing my iTunes drive into a machine if I choose. I feel that depending too much on a single device, in this case, is not a good idea.

If this device can allow a backup of itself then it may be a plausible if someone's using it for TM.

Just my opinion, not meaning to start any arguments. I'm sure someone can shoot it down, it's just that some people get caught up in so much hype about some products.

Tony

--------------------------"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"-Steve Jobs

Great review/introduction to Time Machine. I will be receiving one of these myself very soon, but in the meantime have been reading all the reviews but there is one thing that no reviewer seems to have clarified (sadly this one included).

Apple clearly states that you can back up multiple machines to the single drive in the Time Capsule, yet the only reviews I have read that touch on the matter state that the internal drive can't be partitioned. This makes no sense at all.

- On the one hand, if a regular external USB HD is used for Time Machine by two different machines, the second machines data will completely wipe out the first.

- On the other hand, if Time Capsule uses some kind of new technology to allow for multiple Time Machine connections, it doesn't say what it is or why it's not allowed on regular portable HD's.

- Since Time Capsule can be used as a regular network storage drive, it makes no sense whatsoever that one could not partition it yet that's what the reviewers say when the question is asked.

Very confusing.

I am sure there is a simple explanation, but this is (typically perhaps) a very confusing message from Apple. I am beginning to think that Apple's "keep it simple" strategy in marketing is tripping them up more than it helps lately. If I can buy a time Capsule to "back up all the Macs in my house" (as they say in the advertising), not showing how that is actually done in the marketing materials is just setting folks up for a confusing and potentially disappointing experience.

Also, call me old fashioned, but I would prefer to be able to partition the drive into two or three volumes and allocate each volume for backup to my two or three machines. I don't like the idea of all the files being "magically" mixed on the Time Machine drive by some process that I don't understand and have no access to.

In Windows, a window can be a document, it can be an application, or it can be a window that contains other documents or applications. Theres just no consistency. Its just a big grab bag of monkey...

You will still have problems with this method if you are trying to use multiple machines on one library.

What problems? I have three machines that share one drive (via APE), there are many times that two are playing music simultaneously without a hitch. My library stays organized also, so that's not a "problem" either, just let one machine control that. Am I missing your point?

--------------------------"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"-Steve Jobs

This lets you use Time Machine with Air Disks. I've tried it out to the extent I can set my TimeMachine backup to my shared HD on the AEBS but not actually done the backup. My backup HD is directly connected with FW.

What problems? I have three machines that share one drive (via APE), there are many times that two are playing music simultaneously without a hitch. My library stays organized also, so that's not a "problem" either, just let one machine control that. Am I missing your point?

The problem with this, for me, is that either you have the itunes database on the shared drive, in which case only one mac can access it at one time as the database locks, or, as I have it, each mac holds its own database for the music. In this case, any number of macs can access the music, sync ipods etc, but any changes do not show up on other macs. Rip a cd, record a tv show or manually reorganise an album, for example, and the other macs wont know until you have them rescan the folder.

Same problem with iPhoto, I really wish they'd add client / server support to these two apps.

What's the advantage of doing a TM backup to a TC opposed to a backup connected directly to your machine? Wouldn't a direct connection (via FW or internal) be faster anyway compared to wireless? And why in the world would someone want to do multiple backups from multiple machines to a single drive (TC)? When that one drive craps out, all machines have lost there backup rather than just one. Enlighten me please.

Tony

Most people don't do any backups at all. Most people now have more than one computer in their home. Time Machine and Time Capsule making backing up data easy for the average person.

There, some enlightenmen for ya. TM and TC obviously aren't designed for geeks like you.

Well, more to the point, if TC's hard drive 'craps out', then you replace it and just reback up each machine. The chance of the TC hard drive 'crapping out' at the same time as one of the computers being backed up having it's hard disk 'crap out' is fairly small.

Multiple systems can use the same Volume, this is not restricted to Time Capsule, this feature is inherent to how Time Machine works. TM creates a backup folder in the Volume, then creates a folder for the system you are backing up. So if you select the same drive for TM on different systems, it will create a separate folder for each of them, backing up the data in that folder. SO, you can use multiple systems to backup to the same hard drive, whether Time Capsule drive, or a usb drive connected to Time Capsule, or any other hard drive directly connected to your computer, all of them behave in the same way as far as Time Machine is concerned.

I realize there is debate over the 1TB model. But there is zero doubt about the 500GB model being server-grade.

Mark

Welcome to AI, Mark. The debate is illogical since "server-grade" is not a standard, it's a marketing term. Apple didn't say it was Enterprise Grade—as the 500GB Seagate states—which commonly seen on HDDs with higher MTBF and 5 year or more warranties. Apple uses this drive in their Xserve so technically, and that is all that counts in the marketing world, Apple didn't lie. With a MTBF of 1M hours and reviews giving it high marks no should be complaining about this drive... but we know better than that.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Apple clearly states that you can back up multiple machines to the single drive in the Time Capsule, yet the only reviews I have read that touch on the matter state that the internal drive can't be partitioned. This makes no sense at all.

- On the one hand, if a regular external USB HD is used for Time Machine by two different machines, the second machines data will completely wipe out the first.

Time Machine creates a different folder on the backup drive for each backed up Mac, so that when you open Time Machine on portable 1 it accesses the folder on the Time Machine volume for portable 1, ignoring the folders for portables 2, 3, whatever. No need to format into multiple volumes, one for each portable to backup to.

Apple marketing states that it's "server grade", not enterprise grade". Server grade has no set meaning.
Apple uses it in their Xserve Servers and as well as others.
The MTBF for the 1TB HDD is rated at 1M hours and the 500GB is rated at 1.2M hours.
The various testing on this drive show that it's very good.
All the belly aching is from assuming a marketing term that is technically was referring to an industry standard term.

As such, I'll have to say that it has no meaning at all. Using a drive marketed as a desktop drive in a server doesn't make it server grade or anything else other than desktop grade. They shouldn't be trying to present the drive as better than it is.

each mac holds its own database for the music. In this case, any number of macs can access the music, sync ipods etc, but any changes do not show up on other macs. Rip a cd, record a tv show or manually reorganise an album, for example, and the other macs wont know until you have them rescan the folder.

I can see how reorganizing an album may be confusing to a library, but in all honesty I haven't done that. I can also see how this could confuse another machines library, but a rescan, as you said, may fix this or deleting the album from each library then re-adding it could also be a fix.

I can't recall how I set this up and will take a look tonight to refresh my memory. All I know is that my wife's library, my kids library and mine are all different and share music from the same drive. I've never had a problem adding albums and having everyone pick and choose what they add to their library's. They all play fine. I haven't run all 3 machines at once and can see how this could create a bottleneck. Movies, podcasts and other files are stored on each independent machine as each of us have different taste/no reason to put them on the shared drive, so obviously no conflict here either. Maybe us using it as a music share only is why it works, but I may experiment this weekend. Something tells me though, that for a movie/video podcast may not run fast enough and choke when attempting to play on a machine.

Btw, my iPod syncing works fine also between adding music, podcasts and movies.

The only time I have problems with the music aspect of my library is when I log off the network, but that's easily remedied by logging back on.

Tony

--------------------------"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"-Steve Jobs

As such, I'll have to say that it has no meaning at all. Using a drive marketed as a desktop drive in a server doesn't make it server grade or anything else other than desktop grade. They shouldn't be trying to present the drive as better than it is.

You're right, it has no meaning so Apple can define it. The didn't say it was enterprise grade and it does have a rating of 1M hours so it could be argued that they creating a middle ground classification that is between the desktop and the enterprise. Marketing is marketing, every company does it.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

You're right, it has no meaning so Apple can define it. The didn't say it was enterprise grade and it does have a rating of 1M hours so it could be argued that they creating a middle ground classification that is between the desktop and the enterprise. Marketing is marketing, every company does it.

They are not even doing that (creating a new category). While "server grade" has little to no meaning, "enterprise grade" does and the generally accepted definition is the same 1M hours failure rate. At least in my country this is the definition.

So while Hitachi might call one of their drives "DeskStar" and another "UltraStar" the former is "enterprise grade" by the definition. Hitachi is using as much "marketing speak" as Apple is here.

Overall, it's just lame for people to be getting upset over a comparison between two companies marketing labels. If people want to slag the drive, they should slag it on specs only.

Oh wait, they can't really can they?

In Windows, a window can be a document, it can be an application, or it can be a window that contains other documents or applications. Theres just no consistency. Its just a big grab bag of monkey...

You're right, it has no meaning so Apple can define it. The didn't say it was enterprise grade and it does have a rating of 1M hours so it could be argued that they creating a middle ground classification that is between the desktop and the enterprise.

What I'm saying is that if one company is the only one using it, it's completely meaningless.

Don't a lot of desktop drives have 1M or more anyway?

Quote:

Marketing is marketing, every company does it.

The problem is that apple seems to try to push it much farther and much harder than just about anyone else.

Now they do, but wasn't it just a few years ago when 1M hours was ONLY in Enterprise rated drives? I'm still trying to find something finite for its definition but there doesn't seem to be one. There seems to be a lot of common beliefs around the definition but no IEEE or other classification.

Quote:

The problem is that apple seems to try to push it much farther and much harder than just about anyone else.

And they have an excellent marketing division. Fanboy or not, you can't deny the impressiveness of their marketing engine. Who knows, perhaps they purposely choose the DeskStar with 1M hours just to get free press that states that it's not labeled as Enterprise Grade but does have the requisite MTBF rating of such drives. I certainly don't put it past them.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

but wasn't it just a few years ago when 1M hours was ONLY in Enterprise rated drives?

At least for enterprise SCSI drives, the MTBF is usually based on 24 hours a day, continuous operation. The MTBF for cheaper hard drives might be based on something else, such as running the hard drive 8 hours a day and shutting down the computer at night, etc.

If Apple said the drive is "Xserve grade" that would imply that its used in Xserves, right? But Apple said it is "Server grade" which implies it's used in servers, which it is. Unscrupulous, slimy, devious, underhanded... take your pick. I won't argue that point, but Apple did not lie.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Receive mine yesterday 1 GB, I plan to back up 4 macs with this and that's why I purchased the bigger one. I did have a little trouble setting Time Machine Up. With my past 2 Airport Extremes I was able to simply use Airport Utility from my laptop and after the base station setup I then programed my 2 Airport Express to extend my network. The Time Machine would take me all the way thru setup and tell me "congratulations your Time Machine has been reconfigured " or whatever, you can stop Airport utility or wait until Time Capsule restarts. ( something like that ) Problem was would never restart afterward. This was solved by using an ethernet cable from Mac to Time Machine, worked first time and also the 2 Expresses.

My 1TB Time Capsule did not install as easily as I had hoped either. \

I sought to replace the main airport extreme (n) base station in the office with it, and then move that one inside the house to mix with the Airport Express units delivering the internet to the rest of the house. When I got to: "I want to replace an existing base station or wireless router with Time Capsule" there was no following pane to do so.

In other words, the next part of the setup guide never came through. This was the pane I never saw:

Did anyone else have this problem? Were we supposed to have every piece of the older network still plugged in? Why wouldn't it have seen the other two airport express units still in use?

Anyway, just curious if others are having similar problems with the new software or we have an anomaly on our hands here.

Also, is anyone else puzzled by the fact that extended networks can no longer be configured using the automatic setup routine? I often get bogged down trying to figure out if we're configuring a WDS network or something else that gets "extended" simply to distribute the internet through a space that cannot be covered with one base station.

This is not a big deal.[indent]
The MTBF for the 1TB HDD is rated at 1M hours and the 500GB is rated at 1.2M hours.

Lets just hope that their calculation is not the same as used by IBM/WD/Hitachi Death-sorry-Deskstar disks.

A MTBF of 1M hours equates to 114 years (give and take). I have had to replace those disks on a nearly annual base in machines that run 24/7. By now I actually replace them just after after 12 month even if nth is wrong. Much easier to rebulid a RAID 0 in a scheduled intervention rather then after a corrupt disk.

What's the advantage of doing a TM backup to a TC opposed to a backup connected directly to your machine? Wouldn't a direct connection (via FW or internal) be faster anyway compared to wireless? ...

Laptops, Tony, Laptops. Currently, I have a MacBook hooked up to an external FW drive for Time Machine backups. It's a pain because I hate being tethered to a desk, so backups lapse. With TC, I never need to be near my desk again for backing up.

If the need ever arises where I have to do a full restore, I'll hook via ethernet.

Laptops, Tony, Laptops. Currently, I have a MacBook hooked up to an external FW drive for Time Machine backups. It's a pain because I hate being tethered to a desk, so backups lapse. With TC, I never need to be near my desk again for backing up.

If the need ever arises where I have to do a full restore, I'll hook via ethernet.

Sorry, please pardon my brain-fart.

I sold my MBP a while back and have been depending on my towers lately, so I haven't been thinking straight I guess.

--------------------------"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"-Steve Jobs